Casey wakes up an Idol

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Mirror mirror on the wall who's the Idol after all?
Christine Sams meets a girl who surprised herself.

It was only last week that a 16-year-old girl from Sydney's
suburbs stood in front of her bedroom mirror, singing along to
tunes on her personal stereo. But unlike so many other teenagers
posing in the mirror as part of a pop daydream, Casey Donovan had
already won Australian Idol.

"Singing in your room in front of the mirror - I still do that,"
says Donovan, with a grin. "I actually went home last night for a
barbecue, I was only there for like an hour. I just thought 'I have
to'. I went into my room, plugged in the CD player and did a song
in the mirror. I was just thinking 'you're a dag'."

It's the softer, shyer side of Donovan which revealed itself
during her long chat with S last week to give us the exclusive
first listen to her debut album For You. She even lent us
her personal copy to show off the songs: a collection which is
surprisingly romantic, with the occasional blast of rock. Donovan
finished the album last Tuesday night, after six intense days (yes,
it's become the Idol standard) in the studio.

"Doing an album this quick, you're rushing," says Donovan,
matter-of-factly. "You're really pushing yourself to get it right
every time. On some days it took a little while to get things right
in the songs and it was kind of frustrating ... but then it was
like 'all right, let's start again'."

The result is somewhat startling - Donovan's voice is strong and
sultry, the music much less formulaic than you'd expect. And there
are some grown-up concepts in there for the teenager from Sydney's
suburbs.

On the title track For You, Donovan's self-penned lyrics
include "Every breath that you take/all the love that we make/I'll
be there for you."

The teenager blushes at the thought of the song referring to her
own life. "I'm not one for romance ... you know, I don't have a
love life," she says, with a shy laugh. "But yeah, when I sing
about love I kind of get into that emotional stage where you go
'OK, imagine I'm in love'."

Donovan penned the track while she was in year 9 at school, for
her aunt and uncle who were temporarily living in separate cities
after getting married. "I really felt sorry for them, that they
were apart," she says. "[But] to be honest, I haven't really told
my auntie that it's about her, because I just feel a bit weird
about it."

Instead of the brash, defensive, self-described "skate punk" who
appeared at Idol auditions, Donovan is a teenager who
appears to be immensely self-critical, but also fiercely
enthusiastic about her true passion: singing.

She remembers the feeling of walking into auditions, knowing she
was not the sort of person who usually scored record contracts. "As
soon as I walked into that first audition, I knew I wasn't a
perfect image," she says. "But when I got through, it lifted my
spirits just that little bit higher. And every time I got through,
I just kept going, 'OK, maybe this industry isn't about image'. And
when I won, I just thought, 'What the hell?'."

Whereas last year's Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian
was enthusiastic and engaging from the word go (and runner-up
Shannon Noll showed off his country-boy charm), Donovan can often
appear almost nonchalant about winning the competition. But behind
the air of affected boredom is a young girl trying to come to grips
with the enormity of her win.

"Last night I was lying in bed going 'you're the
Australian Idol'. My mates keep telling me 'you're the
Australian Idol'. But it hasn't clicked in my mind yet," she says.
"Yeah, all this stuff I'm doing is great, I'm having so much fun.
But there's almost that thing in the back of your mind, going 'why
again? Sorry?'."

But it's not as though Donovan wasn't preparing for some
recognition from the public. When she reached the top 30 of the
competition, her stepfather Norm Axford convinced her to come up
with a new signature, so it would be easier for her to sign
autographs.

"Yeah, I was sitting at his work, writing out signatures,"
Donovan says with a grin. "I tried out about 15, then wrote one
down as a joke and my stepdad said 'I like it' and I liked it too.
So that's the one I'm using."

She is yet to face the full brunt of Idol fame, but don't
expect the hype to go away in a hurry. Donovan's debut single
Listen With Your Heart is expected to hit the No. 1 spot on
the ARIA charts tomorrow. The 11-track album For You will be
released on December 12, followed by a full-blown Australian
Idol tour in the new year.

"I haven't really been in the public eye yet to know how people
will react, I'm still waiting to do that," she says, with a glint
in her eye.

"But I don't think I'll be going to shopping centres on my own
for a little while."